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Communicate and collaborate

Connect and share both experiences and goals with members across the country

Stay up to date

Access the latest industry news, jobs and events

Access key resources

Find current teaching, curriculum and program materials all in one place

Increase your knowledge

Participate in webinars, webconferences and goal-oriented groups

How Tutela has helped members to succeed:

Online collaboration tools overcome distance

One of the things I most appreciate about Tutela is the collaboration tools. Our group is located in different areas of Ontario, so difficult to have face to face meetings. The live conferencing within our group allows us to video conference as well as to upload and share materials immediately. Also, we can upload materials that we are working on, resources found, agendas etc.

Within Tutela, I think that our world will be more accessible. Members who are teaching/instructing ESL across Canada have a place to meet, and to share ideas. When we meet face to face at the major conferences, we can continue the conversation throughout the year, and not only that, we can build relationships with our colleagues and continue to professionally develop throughout our careers.

Jen Artan, ESL Instructor

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Providing value to TESL Ontario Members

In September of 2014, the TESL Ontario free webinar series officially launched on Tutela. Since the start, we have run live webinars twice monthly. Participants have the opportunity to participate in post-webinar discussions, and communicate with presenters and fellow attendees. A post-webinar survey helps us improve the webinars and provide relevant topics.

Each webinar is recorded and posted within the group, both for those who missed the live webinar and those who want to review what they’d seen at the live webinar. PD certificates are provided for both live and recorded webinars.

Today we average 51 attendees per webinar, and almost 1,300 members in the TESL Ontario group. Our library has grown to 43 recorded webinars, providing members with easy access to quality professional development.

The TESL Ontario group on Tutela has become a valuable benefit of TESL Ontario membership.

Allison Keown, Member Services Manager TESL Ontario

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Simplifying the PBLA training process

Our program manager created a group on Tutela for YRDSB Instructors to facilitate the PBLA training and ongoing support for our instructors during implementation in the classroom. We currently have 55 members and as new people are hired they join the group.

In order to continue to provide additional and personalized support, one of the things we did was use the video chat room on Tutela for the four sessions per month.

I did not have a lot of previous experience with facilitating online conferencing aside from using Google Hangouts with my students. The BigBlueButton was easy to use and I especially liked the fact that we could personalize the layout, share resources in real time and have more than one person participate.

We received positive feedback from our colleagues and are planning on continuing with the video chats in the new school year.

Aida Aganagic, ESL/OSLT Instructor

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Using groups to connect with colleagues

The Conestoga College LINC Program has almost 30 instructors spread across three sites. Although it's not often that we are all in the same room at the same time, our Group home page allows us to connect with colleagues to share ideas and resources we have found or created - such as a featured ‘Resources of the Week’ and ‘Discussion of the Month’.

It’s also a convenient way of making professional development materials and other shared documents available to all members of staff.

Anna Wodtka, LINC Instructor

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Targeted CLB Levels useful for TESL students

I am a student in the TESL Program at Algonquin College, and came to know about Tutela through one of my teachers. It is an amazing resource for a student like me, not only in terms of the quality and range of information, but also access and functioning.

Tutela offers a rich blend of the theoretical and practical. I went through a number of lesson plans to select some for my assignments and found that I learned a lot in just doing that - the process supplemented my course readings.

I know I will continue to use Tutela as my go-to site, and get more out of it as I get to know it better.

Manju Sah, TESL Program Student

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Active learning with group webinars

As a result of my work as a webinar administrator with TESL Ontario’s webinar series, I am a member of several groups on Tutela: TESL Ontario Project Administrators, Webinar Support Team, TESL Ontario (where our webinars take place), and a moderator run through group. Our team uses it to post files, communicate back and forth, and conduct web conferences or meetings.

I regularly attend webinars on Tutela and now TESL Ontario has launched its own webinars series through the TESL Ontario group on Tutela. I love learning through webinars. There is such a great range of expertise out there and it is so convenient to access.

Christina Cole, Partial-load Professor

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Enabling Asynchronous Learning

I am a Distance Education Instructor with the LINC Home Study program and I have been accessing webinars from the Tutela site for the past year or so. I have found them to be very insightful and practical and I have integrated some of the things I have learned into my work.

Working with an on-line learning program, one of the elements that I have come to appreciate is asynchronous learning. Most of us live busy lives in the modern world and being able to access information and learning on our time is becoming increasingly helpful, perhaps essential; so for me, being able to access past Tutela webinars on my own time has been very helpful.

Gary French, Online LINC Instructor

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Addressing the need to connect online

Since the LINC instructors in our group teach in small, rural communities across the entire Columbia Basin in southeastern B.C., once PBLA was implemented in our region we really needed to find a way for our instructors to be able to connect online since face-to-face training sessions were simply not possible.

So as a PBLA Lead Teacher and Tutela member, I decided that starting a private group would be the most logical solution since it would enable us to share files and use the live conferencing for all our sessions.

I was able to put all the materials up on the screen and use the whiteboard to make things more interactive and interesting, and I could put up all the other instructors work so that we could discuss our assignments. If someone missed a meeting then they could just watch the recording. We often used the discussion forum to post comments on some of the questions in my lead teacher lesson plans.

I have to say, if it wasn’t for our Tutela group, I’m not sure how we would have been able to facilitate our organization’s PBLA training. Thanks to Tutela, it has worked out very well, and we will be continuing to use our group’s live conferencing to facilitate our monthly PBLA meetings starting again in September.

Pam Baillie, PBLA Lead (BC)

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An online learning garden

For me, Tutela is an online learning garden where I can meet colleagues from across Canada. On Tutela, I can ask a question and hear from a friendly colleague in, say, the Yukon. And just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. And that’s why I shared some information about our Summer course - to tell as many teachers as possible about this exciting learning design challenge and to ask for help in reviewing and contributing resources, because I really believe in peer learning and collaboration.

Even just asking questions was helpful as it made me think deeper about what we were doing. And within 24 hours, I received replies from 2 Tutela members - 1 in Niagara Falls and 1 in Nova Scotia. Another week passed and 2 more members joined the discussion.

At first, I was a bit self conscious before posting online on Tutela about the course. However, my success with the group of 4 people boosted my confidence in using Tutela. I wasn’t looking for dozens of people to help. I just needed a few fresh eyes who would enjoy contributing to my project. And, in learning, I believe that every bit counts. Just like in a flower garden, where every single flower adds to the beauty of the garden. So go, Tutela, go!

Iwona G, Lead of Learner Services

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Becoming a key virtual meeting place

TESL N.S. has been using Tutela for several months now. We find it a very effective tool to be able to connect all of our board members, even those living in more remote areas of N.S. It has been very helpful in terms of members being able to attend meetings from home without having to drive long distances just to attend meetings. We have found it to be very user friendly and a wonderful online tool. We will continue to have our meetings on Tutela and have been pleased with how it has enabled us to connect.

Anna Maier, VP of TESL N.S.

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Tutela as a key component in mentorship

I teach English to adult immigrant and refugee students. I assisted with the launch of the TEAM Mentorship Program (TMP) in 2005, and have been a mentor since its inception.

While providing online mentorship to educators in northern Manitoba in 2013 - 2014, I found Tutela to be a key component in all my online mentorship sessions. I used the platform during the hour-long sessions, so both myself and my mentees would have simultaneous access to the resources being discussed.

Rita Zuba Prokopetz, ESL CAE

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Delivering high caliber PD workshops

TESL Ottawa has used Tutela to bring high caliber professional development workshops to our local members through hybrid/blended sessions. Tutela lets us share our presenters from across Ontario through their online webinars. This allows us to keep costs low for our members, without sacrificing on quality, engaging content. This is the delivery method of the future and TESL Ottawa is grateful for the service.

Sharon Deng, Affiliate President TESL Ottawa

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First Stop for Information & Ideas

Presently, I am a student enrolled in the TESL certificate program at Algonquin College. Being new to the field, Tutela has become my first stop when looking for information and ideas. I can find sample lesson plans for class assignments and watch webinars that help supplement my learning in a practical way. It is an invaluable resource that all TESL students should be aware of. I know that I have only scratched the surface of what Tutela can offer and will continue to expand my use of Tutela.

Get started today!

If you are a current or future ESL/FSL professional in Canada then this bilingual community is for you.

Meet the team

With over 15,000 members, it’s no surprise that there’s a team behind the Tutela community. You may well have already met some of us either online or at conferences but, as a group, we bring together various complementary skill sets that work to help you get the most out of community – now and in the future.